Saturday, July 1, 2017

50 Years Ago this Month – July 1967


BFYP Breaking News! Notes and quotes on the June 29 Jay & The Americans show! They're Keepin’ the Music A-live.

Always news: BFYP Rock and Roll Radio DJs: Books 1 (1950s) and 2 (1960s) ready at Amazon to walk you down Memory Lane, to the Golden Age of Rock & Roll Radio! Enjoy the moment ... again.

Emulated, but Never Duplicated

July—every year since 1776 we’ve begun the month with a bang! In radio, the big bang also pays tribute to the death of Wolfman Jack, July 1, 1995. He was the self-proclaimed “Original Rock & Roll Animal.”

I prefer celebrating births rather than deaths, and though we certainly honor the Wolfman, to this day oft-imitated, and July is of course, a celebration of the US Declaration of Independence’s final approval, let’s light the fireworks for a couple other reasons. We're here to celebrate 50 Years Ago this Month - July 1967 ...

In music and radio, July ’67 was the middle month in the Summer of Love. The radio charts were scattered with love songs amongst grooves of Psychedelic Rock, which gained ground in part, through popularity with returning Vietnam soldiers.  

Music was essential to many soldiers, and Psychedelic Rock embodied their extreme mix of swirling emotions.

Still in the clutches of the war, 50 years ago we endured the most devastating single-day loss this month, by the Marines, in Operation Buffalo.

And The Beatles’ song, “All We Need is Love,” became even more poignant at the top of the radio charts. A “love song” for sure, but considered one of their most political tunes. (The boys even wore flowers in their hair for the Our World global premiere of the song, June 25, 1967.)

Listeners at KACY/Santa Barbara applauded their local DJ, Steve Sands (Sandoval) on the cover of the July 28th survey, as he soon enlisted in the US Army. At the same time, KACY fans boosted “All You Need is Love” to #10 (up from #14 previous week), stabilizing it at #3 in the next couple of weeks.
Where did the iconic Beatles song land on the charts in your neck of the woods? Don’t recall? Bop on over to The Airheads Radio Survey Archive, enter a radio station or city, and enjoy a leisurely stroll down Memory Lane!

Would you rather listen to than view memories of the ‘60s? Strap on your headphones and head over to YouTube to download my audio interview with DJ David “Ghosty” Wills, reminiscing about pioneering DJs, and Book 2 in the Blast from Your Past! series – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging Sixties.

Wolfman Jack and The Beatles … emulated, imitated, but never duplicated.

Featured Radio Survey: DJ Steve Sands at KACY/Santa Barbara was one of (I’m sure) many jocks who entered service 50 Years Ago this Month. Check out KACY’s music survey for July 28, 1967. The top fifteen gave us love with “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” to following your fantasy in “White Rabbit,” at #1.

Celebrate JULY 1967: 50 Years Ago and … Rock On!


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Thursday, June 1, 2017

50 Years Ago this Month – June 1967



Before we stroll down Memory Lane into June 1967 ...
BFYP Breaking News! Jay & the AmericansCome a Little Bit Closerto San Diegans at the Del Mar Fair, June 29, 2017 @ 1:00p! It’s FREE*! Read the excerpt from BFYP Book 1 of their R&R beginnings, finish the story with Book 2 The Swinging Sixties – and take it to the Fair for their autographs! I'll be there too - let's ROCK! (*With your Fair admission; Seniors only $11.00!)
More Breaking News: Hey San Diegans – been looking for your fave local Rock DJ, Dave Mason? He’s your new Sunny one weekend Guy, on 98.1 Adult Contemporary. Tune in to hear Dave turn on!
🎵🎵🎵🎵

 
It’s Officially the “Golden Summer of Love”!

Unreal. Groovy. Surrealistic. Here we are … we have arrived in the future, my fellow Rockin’ Boomers! How did we get here?!

Fifty Years Ago this Month, we were part of an authentic “happening” … an epiphany … a true phenomenon … the “Summer of Love.”
I attended the KFRC/San Francisco Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival the weekend of June 10-11. It transformed the serene top of Mount Tamalpais into a swirling haze of musical mayhem and dancing Mary Janes. Breathe deep …

It was not pure mountain air, m’dears! But it was a celebration of young and old, hippies and button-downs, and a whole lotta Rock & Roll. This was the weekend that slid us into the Summer of Love.
KFRC may have been mostly Top 40 fare the Summer of ‘67, but their innovative support broke the ceiling for progressive Rock that weekend. The brainchild of Program Director, Tom Rounds, its lineup included an eclectic spectrum of performers from Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, and The 5th Dimension, to Country Joe and the Fish, The Steve Miller Band, and fast-chart-climbers, The Doors.

The Fantasy Fair, while grudgingly acknowledged as the first large scale outdoor Rock / Pop concert, was outstripped by a bigger event a few weeks later. But the Monterey Pop Festival with nearly double attendance, certainly didn’t dampen the Fair’s status for avid Rock fans. In fact, MPF benefitted from the Fair’s success. More importantly, the Fair operated as an altruistic charity benefit, without the MPF’s commercial business vibe.
Sadly, very few images and only a couple of truncated film clips survived the decades. But as long as memory survives, the weekend that kicked off the 1967 Summer of Love will live again.

As for today … look around you … young and old still love mind-altering drugs, we still protest for love, not war, and this year has seen more society and political upheaval than there has been since the Sixties. Put a flower in your hair, “White Rabbit”* in your headphones, and welcome the “2017 ‘Golden’ Summer of Love”!  

Featured Radio Survey: While KFRC’s listeners discovered new music and a new way to party at the Fantasy Fair, in Lexington, Kentucky, WVLK fans stuck with the Top 40. What the “Mighty 590” lacked in radio station polish they made up for in advertising ingenuity. Check out the music survey that doubled as an ad agent’s promo, week of June 10-16, 1967 …

Celebrate JUNE 1967: 50 Years Ago and … Rock On!
  
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